Arakawa Honored by Big Sky for Third Week in a Row

Jordan Arakawa of the Eastern Washington
University men’s track and field team was selected as the Big
Sky Conference co-men’s field athlete of the week for the
week of April 15 after exceeding the 210-foot barrier in the hammer
for the third week in a row at EWU’s 43rd Annual Pelluer
Invitational on April 12 in Cheney, Wash.

Competing in his home ring, Arakawa continued his stellar season
in the hammer, winning the event with a toss of 216-8 at the
Pelluer.

This week Arakawa shares the honors with Portland State’s
Nevin Lewis, who competed in his first decathlon for the Vikings
Friday (April 11) at the Mondo Mid-Major Challenge in Sacramento,
Calif. Lewis won the event with an outstanding score of 7,268 that
tops the Big Sky.

This is Arakawa’s sixth Athlete of the Week honor outdoors
and seventh of his career. He has now claimed the honors three
times during the 2014 outdoor season, matching his total from 2013
outdoors.

This is also Arakawa's third-straight AOTW award, as he claimed
the honors for the week of April 1 and 8 in the past two weeks.

Arakawa’s personal and seasonal-best throw of 219-3 at the
Al Manuel Invitational earned him his first AOTW honor of the
season. That mark currently ranks atop the Big Sky, sixth in the
west region and 11th in the nation amongst Division I competitors.
He entered the 2014 season with the No. 2 all-time spot at Eastern,
but has inched closer to the school record and Big Sky Conference
record of 226-2 set in 2007 by David Paul. Arakawa ranks third
all-time in the Big Sky behind Paul and Northern Arizona’s
Karim Chester (219-8, 2005).

Arakawa was also named AOTW once during the 2014 indoor season,
when he had a personal-best toss of 66-1 in the weight throw at the
Ed Jacoby Invitational on Jan. 31. That mark also ranks second in
school history behind Paul, who had a throw of 68-8 1/2 in
2007.

The junior from Capital High School is coming off his first
career Big Sky title in the weight throw, in which he led a
historic one-two-three sweep for Eastern with teammates
Zack Nielsen and Jon Buchanan. He
also put together two All-Big Sky performances last season, placing
second in both the weight and hammer in 2013.

Arakawa will be facing some stellar competition this weekend, as
Eastern heads back to California for the Mt. SAC Relays (April
16-19) in Walnut, Calif., and the Beach Invitational (April 18-19)
in Cerritos, Calif.